


The Divine Lady and Her Rider

by Anaquana



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 11:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7265452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anaquana/pseuds/Anaquana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A thief and her unicorn companion impersonate holy personages in order to steal a holy artifact from a small village.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Divine Lady and Her Rider

**Author's Note:**

> I asked on Tumblr for writing prompts to help me get out of a slump. One of the prompts requested a morally ambiguous unicorn. This is a completely original work featuring original characters.

The whispers and rumors began to buzz as soon as the woman astride a unicorn approached the village. Children raced through the wheat fields, their weeding duties forgotten in their excitement, as they strove to outrun the rest in order to be the first to tell the villagers about their arrival. Olan's tail swished back and forth, the only outward sign that she was nervous, but Arietta could feel the tension running throughout the equine's body.

"Everything is going to be fine." she murmured, stroking the silky, golden mane. "We've done this a dozen times already. We just stick to the plan and everything will work out."

_I don't like it. Something doesn't feel right._

"Well, it's too late to turn back now; here comes the village elder. Hold your head high and try not to skewer anybody this time."

The unicorn grumbled under her breath.

_It's not my fault the lout got in my way._

"You could have just jumped over him, silly." Arietta patted Olan's neck affectionately. "Now hush. We don't want anybody getting suspicious."

Olan snorted and shook her head, but she didn't say anything more. The pair approached the village gates where a tall older woman stood with her arms held out in greeting. Behind her stood six young men, each holding a ceremonial spear above his head.

"Greetings, Divine Lady and Her Rider. Please be welcome to our humble village." The village elder clasped her hands in front of her heart and bowed low. The honor guard of young men behind her did the same. Olan whinnied in response, a sound interpreted as gracious thanks by everyone except for Arietta who knew that the unicorn was laughing at the oblivious humans.

"You have our sincerest gratitude for whatever accommodations you are able to provide to us. Would your village have a temple where my Lady might spend the night?" Arietta's question was a mere formality, they already knew that this village had a temple, that was the whole reason they'd chosen to pass through this way.

"Of course, of course. Please, let me show you the way. Once you are both settled, I would be most honored if you would accept an invitation to my home for dinner."

"The honor would be ours, Wise One." Arietta inclined her head regally toward the village elder who turned and walked between the group of young men who fell in behind her.

Arietta and Olan followed the group through the village gate where they were greeted by the entire village lining the streets, cheering for them. Little children hastily dressed in their best clothes with their faces still streaked with dirt and sweat darted across the wide central avenue throwing oats and clover in Olan's path.

_For the love of light, I'm not a horse. I don't eat grass. Where do these people get these ideas? Do they know anything about unicorns at all?_

Arietta discreetly patted Olan's neck, urging her to overlook the blunder. She straightened her back and tried to look as regal as possible as they processed down the street to the Temple of the Divine Lady. The villagers closed in behind them, creating a village-wide parade.

The temple was little more than a converted barn the villagers had cleaned out and added a podium and benches to. As two of the men helped Arietta down from Olan's back, a very lovely young woman emerged through a door at the back of the barn, her short, dark hair styled into a representation of a horn on top of her head. She wore ceremonial white robes trimmed with gold thread and gold-dyed riding boots. It was the exact same outfit Arietta wore, only this young woman wore it in earnest whereas Arietta's was only a costume.

"My Lady, may I present my daughter, Celina, who hopes to one day become a Rider herself. She leaves for the Great Temple in Argosa when the leaves begin to fall."

Olan snorted with amusement, but Arietta was more nervous than amused. However, she nodded toward the young woman who bowed low in response.

"It is an honor to be in your presence, my Lady. I hope that one day my actions please you enough to merit the title of Rider."

Arietta surreptitiously nudged Olan in the side, urging the unicorn to give the Rider-in-Training some sort of response. Olan took a step forward, lowering her head. Arietta held her breath, her heart racing with fear. The tempestuous unicorn had been even more temperamental than usual and Arietta was afraid that she'd finally had enough and was going to impale the young woman on her horn.  

But Olan merely laid her horn on Celina's clasped hands. The temple walls seemed to expand with the force of the watching villagers' gasps. Then they all cheered, their voices raised in hymns to the Divine Lady. Celina had burst into tears.

Arietta kept her expression pleasantly neutral, but it was a tough internal battle to keep from hissing in exasperation. Their whole plan hinged on the villagers not becoming too involved. They were simply a unicorn and her rider passing through: Yes, thank you for the accolades and dinner, blessings of the Lady to you all, no we really can't stay longer than the night, we've got Divine Lady things to do, farewell!

The villagers would buzz about it for a few weeks, "How lucky we were that the Lady chose to bless us with her presence. Wasn't that lovely." then they'd go back to their normal, every day lives and Arietta and Olan's passage would be nothing more than a nice story to tell to their children. But now Olan, in what Arietta could only describe as a fit of perverse mischief, had completely destroyed that plan. She'd made this visit personal – she'd given the villagers false hope that Celina would indeed become a Rider.

The villagers would remember this for years. They'd gossip about it with any and all future visitors who would, in turn, gossip about it with their friends. In time, the story might reach ears that mattered. Ears attached to people who would recognize Arietta and Olan. People who would do anything to find them.

Arietta wanted to jump astride Olan and gallop away, but it was too late now. She'd already accepted the village elder's invitation to dinner. If they left now, it would raise suspicions, pointed questions would be asked, and word would reach unfriendly ears that much faster. No. The only option was to play through this charade and get out of the area as soon as possible.

Everything became a blur of sound and movement as the entire village pressed forward to congratulate Celina and bow respectfully to Arietta and Olan. It was too hot and too crowded and it took everything Arietta had not to start screaming. Or stabbing people.

She fingered the dagger hidden under her robes. Everybody was packed in so tightly nobody would notice as the first few people died, their bodies would be held up by the press of the crowd. And nobody would ever even suspect a Rider of something so evil and impure as murder. But no. She'd be good. Or at least as good as she could be, all things considered.

"… a feast!"

Arietta whipped her head around as she caught the end of the village elder's proclamation. They were going to throw a feast. That night. For her and Olan. Unsheathing her dagger and slaughtering the whole town was starting to sound like a better idea every moment.

A hand closed around her arm. Arietta instinctively reached over and clasped it with her own, tensing to flip her assailant over her hip and into the crowd. But the skin was too soft and the grip too light to be a threat.

"Please, come with me," Celina whispered in her ear, completely unaware of Arietta's panic. Her voice held no sign that she'd just been crying, there was only a quiet resignation. "I have a room for you to rest and refresh yourselves before the feast tonight."

It was a small, unassuming room at the back of the temple, but it was clean and the cot was more comfortable than the hard ground Arietta had been sleeping on for the past several weeks. There was also a platter of fruit and trough of cold water on the floor for Olan and a second, smaller platter of meats and cheeses with a pitcher of cold cider on a table by the bed.

After showing them to the room, Celina left them to their own devices. Arietta unsaddled Olan and rubbed her down before changing out of her own travel-stained clothes into an identical white and gold robe. She wanted her soft leather pants and silk tunic, but Riders didn't wear anything but white and gold. Arietta would pay good coin to know how they kept their robes clean after traveling so much.

 _I told you I had a bad feeling about this village_.

"How was I supposed to know they had a Rider-in-Training? They didn’t the last time I passed through here," Arietta hissed, wishing that the telepathy which allowed Olan to speak directly to her mind worked in reverse. She didn't think the villagers would be so crass as to set somebody to listening to her, but she hated taking chances. "And we were doing fine until you decided to 'bless', the silly little bint. What were you thinking?"

Olan gave the equine equivalent of a shrug _. I don't know. I was bored and wanted to see what they'd do._

"Well, you put the entire plan in jeopardy. Now, we're going to have to deal with drunken revelers awake until all hours of the morning. Getting out of here without being seen isn't going to be so easy."

Olan looked as unconcerned as any equine could look. It was that complete lack of care that had gotten them into their current predicament which necessitated them impersonating a Lady and Her Rider. Not for the first time, Arietta wondered why she stuck with the unicorn; every difficulty they'd found themselves in could be traced back to Olan's impulsive tendencies.

 _We'll figure it out. We always do._ Olan set her head in Arietta's lap, gazing up at her with large, golden eyes and Arietta remembered why she stayed. Nobody understood her quite like Olan, and Arietta understood Olan right back. She'd maybe-not-so-happily face the troubles they got into if it meant having somebody by her side who didn’t judge her for who she was.

"I hope so."

The feast the villagers threw for them was a marvel of both scale and industrious time-management. They'd arrived at the village just a few hours before sundown, yet by the time Arietta awoke from her nap just as the last streaks of purple and pink were gobbled up by the dark, the village square had been transformed into an outdoor eatery with tables and chairs arranged in a spiral around the center fountain. Platters of meats and vegetables were being carried out of houses all around the square and placed on the tables. At the opposite end of the village, a bonfire had been lit and young men and women danced around it.

Casks of ale and cider had been tapped and everyone in the square held a mug over-flowing with drink. Children chased each other throwing flowers and grass everywhere without being chastised for it. The entire village had a festival air to it.

Inside, Arietta cringed away from it all, but she smiled as if she were overjoyed by the attention and accepted a handsome young man's request to escort her and Olan to the head table where the village elder and the head woman already sat, Celina sandwiched between the two women.

"Divine Lady and Rider, may I introduce you to our head woman, my sister, Lianne."

"It's an honor, my Lady. Please eat and enjoy the festivities we've put together in your honor." The head woman rose and moved over a seat, gesturing for Arietta to sit next to Celina.

Olan dipped her head respectfully, touching her horn to the platter of fruits and succulent flowers they'd laid out for her meal. The whole village cheered and young men began circulating amongst the tables with trenchers of food. Arietta ate sparingly both because her nerves had completely ruined any appetite she'd had and because she didn't want a heavy stomach making her tired and listless.

Beside her, Celina fumbled about trying to make polite small-talk, but seemed too awestruck by Arietta's supposed Rider status to get more than a few mumbled sentences out before subsiding into silence. As well, all her former grace had fled; every time she moved she bumped into Arietta's arm or knocked her knee against Arietta's leg.

It wasn't until they both reached for the same jug of cider and Celina hastily pulled her hand back with a soft, "Oh!" that Arietta noticed the blush that turned the young woman's face a delightful shade of pink. And then she understood why Celina was a Rider-in-Training.

While it wasn't true that unicorns would only approach virgins (for which Arietta was quite grateful), many smaller villages still believed the story, and any young woman who found herself not interested in marriage to any of the young men her family chose for her was quietly forced into becoming a Rider-in-Training. It was a fate that Arietta herself had faced before she ran away from her village. Of course, the joke ended up being on her when she met Olan and the two instantly bonded, but at least neither of them had to abide by the Divine Strictures mandated by the Temple of the Divine Lady.

While Celina was certainly lovely and Arietta hadn't had female companionship in many weeks, she refused to compound their troubles by encouraging the young woman's flirtations. She spent the rest of the feast coolly rebuffing her advances until Celina pouted and left the square.  

Finally enough time had passed for Arietta to politely claim fatigue and an early start for their departure. Both she and Olan retreated back to the temple and their tiny room. Arietta dozed while Olan kept an ear out for the festivities to die down. She jerked awake as soon as Olan nudged her with her nose. She gathered up their gear and, as silently as possible, saddled Olan.

"Wait for me out behind the temple. There's a small alleyway that leads around to the village gate. I'll grab the sacred chalice and meet you out there. If we're quiet, nobody will hear or see us leave."

Olan touched her horn to Arietta's shoulder and exited the temple, her hooves making only the slightest sound on the hay-strewn floor. Arietta examined the temple space, wondering where exactly the villagers kept the chalice made from the golden horn of a unicorn. It was generally displayed in plain sight so that worshippers could gaze upon it and have their faith renewed in between holy days, but after a careful perusal, she could find no sign of it.

"Looking for this?"

Arietta spun around, going into a low crouch, her hand reaching for the dagger sheathed in her boot. Celina stood on the dais, the chalice clasped in her hands.

"I'm sorry, you startled me. I was simply going out for a breath of air." The lie fell lightly from Arietta's lips, but inside her heart was clenching in her chest. If she couldn't talk her way out of this, both she and Olan would be imprisoned and the head woman would send for a magistrate from the Great Temple, but Arietta and Olan would most likely be dead before the magistrate even arrived.

Celina snorted with wry amusement, tossing the horn from hand to hand.

"There's no need to lie to me. I heard you talking to the unicorn and I know you're not a Rider and she's not a sanctioned Lady." Her voice shook with fear, but she didn't cower or back down.

Arietta saw no reason to continue the deception or play coy, so she merely rose to her feet and placed her hands on her hips, staring down the Rider-in-Training. "So, I guess the question is: what are you going to do with this information?"

"Nothing," Celina said, tossing the horn to Arietta.

Arietta caught the valuable object without looking at it. She kept her gaze firmly on Celina, not daring to believe they'd get out of this so easily.

"I won't do anything with the knowledge," Celina repeated, " _if_ you agree to take me with you."

"What?" Arietta wasn't nearly as surprised as she pretended to be. Let the girl think she had no idea what she was going through. It would be easier to dissuade her that way. "You have no idea who I really am or what I'm planning on doing with this." She waved the horn in Celina's direction. "What makes you think you'd be safe with me?"

"You're right; I don't know any of that, but it can't be any worse than staying here or being shipped off to the Great Temple. I don't want to be a Rider, but I refuse to marry that oaf, Trevor and if I stay here, I'll be forced to choose one of those options. So, I'm choosing to trust you to at least get me away from this place. If things don't work out, you can always dump me at the next village we pass through, but please don't leave me here."

Arietta wanted to toss the horn chalice to the ground and run from the temple as fast as she could and leave the girl behind. She didn't want to have another mouth to feed or another's safety to watch out for. She certainly didn't want to spend day after day traveling with and sleeping next to the lovely young woman. It was all distractions she and Olan didn't need.

But she also couldn't leave Celina to her fate or let her run off with the next merchant caravan to pass through. Not when she knew exactly how the girl felt. Not when she could provide a safe escape for her.

She growled under breath. "Fine. But you carry your own weight and if you slow us down, you get left behind. My affairs are a need-to-know basis and, right now, you don't need to know. I assume you have your pack set?"

Celina nodded and gave a small hop of joy and clapped her hands together. "Just hang on and let me grab it."

She ran through the door she'd emerged from earlier in the day and was back in less time than it took for Arietta to take a deep breath. After a quick inspection, Arietta had to admit that Celina at least knew what she was doing when it came to packing – she had all of the essentials she might need on the road and only a small perfume bottle as a keepsake.

"Olan isn't going to like this, but give her a couple of days and she'll get over it."

"Olan? That's the unicorn's name?"

Arietta nodded. "And mine's Arietta. Now that actual introductions are through, how about we get out of here before somebody notices Olan standing out there and wonders what's going on."

Celina nodded and guided Arietta through a back door that Arietta hadn't even noticed. It saved her considerable stress as she didn't have to worry about sneaking around the side of the building without being seen.

Olan reared back as Celina exited the temple, but Arietta hurried in front of her before the unicorn could impale the young woman.

"It's all right. It's going to be three of us for a while," she said, stuffing the golden horn into the saddlebag containing three other sacred chalices.

_Are you sure about this? I don't think this is a good idea._

"Yes, I'm sure and I don't care if it's a good idea or not. She's coming with us."

Olan snorted and tossed her mane, but said nothing more. Celina lead them through the village by a meandering route that kept them out of sight of any windows and late-night revelers. The bonfire had burned down to nothing but embers and the three hurried through the shifting shadows and out the village gate.

As they crept through a field of wheat, Arietta took one last look at the village, watching for any sentries who might be on duty, but Celina stared straight ahead, her gaze never wavering from the path ahead. Arietta didn't know if the young woman was cut out for their life of crime, but it would be interesting to find out.

 

 

 

 


End file.
